The start of July brought with it the final two, highly-anticipated episodes of Stranger Things Season 4. The season has proven wildly successful with audiences, with Volume 1 breaking the Neilsen streaming record, and Volume 2 being met with such fervor it caused Netflix to crash upon the episodes premiering.
Two people very cognizant of this popularity are the Duffer Brothers. They recently revealed that they were considering a spin-off series for their 1980s-set sci-fi horror series, provided that the new idea is sufficiently different from the story being told in Stranger Things.
The two recently spoke with Collider's own Steve Weintraub about the potential spin-off. When asked about their level of involvement — whether they'd like to simply produce or take on a more extensive role — Matt Duffer said:
"[U]ltimately the hope is to pass the baton to somebody else. Because by the time we're done with this, it's going to have been... God, it's going to be almost have been 10 years. It's going to be more or less my entire 30s. So it would be another five to ten-year commitment on this thing. I don't think you can go half in. I was telling this to somebody else, there's not really a great version of us, say, doing a pilot and then abandoning it."
Matt went on to elaborate that he and his brother Ross are not the types to approach their projects in a detached way, adding:
"[Y]ou're in the editing room every day. You're in color. You're in sound. You're all in or not. What Ross and I really are interested in is, we've been developing the story, which we haven't told anybody yet. I don't even know if anyone's going to like it. We are very excited about it, that's all I know. But Netflix has been cool, they haven't been pressuring us very much, honestly, about it. They're very shockingly patient with me and Ross."
The Duffer Brothers still have a ways to go before they truly need to concern themselves with a spin-off series, as Stranger Things still has a fifth season waiting to be written. Though the spin-off is not imminent, and they currently feel no pressure to deliver, Matt says that he and his brother have an idea, and it's one that a keen cast member has picked up on.
"The pressure is beginning to mount. I start to get more texts about it, especially as we've been talking about it in the press, and they don't know what the idea is. Finn Wolfhard, I think I have said this in the press, knows what it is only because he guessed it. If you actually correctly guess it, I'll tell you, but he's the only one."
Stranger Things Season 4 is streaming on Netflix now. Look for more from our exclusive interview with the Duffer brothers soon.